THOMAS BEWICK. 



69, 



woodcuts by Bewick, many of them delicate and dainty, and not unworthy 

 of their designer. This little work is perhaps the germ from which the 

 Quadrupeds sprung, though the book of " Three Hundred Animals " more 

 probably forced Bewick to produce something of a better class. Atkinson says 

 of Tommy Trip, "It is to this that we are indebted for the more finished and 

 celebrated ' History of Quadrupeds' and ' History of British Birds.'" But 

 this was necessarily only surmise, although it is not improbable that the 

 drawing of these animals led Bewick to think more seriously of his desire 

 to outvie the " Three Hundred Animals." This most interesting point to the 

 Bewick collector is discussed further when treating of the preparation for 

 the publication of the Quadrupeds. The original edition of Tommy Trip 

 is now rarely met with in perfect condition. The frontispiece shows 

 Woglog the Giant attempting to seize Tommy Trip ; other fine cuts are 

 the hen and ducklings, the tame duck, the camel — a cut closely allied to 

 that in the Quadrupeds — a fox looking at geese in the water, the reindeer 

 in Lapland, a tiger, a boy frightened at his own shadow, a wild boar, a 

 shepherd seated at an open fire, with a dog behind him (a design repeated by 

 John Bewick in the "Looking Glass for the Mind "), as well as a number of 

 other figures and animals, engraved in the style of the 1776 " Select Fables" 

 and the 1779 Gay's Fables. The cuts were also printed separately in a small 

 octavo volume. Many were used to embellish Charnley's "Select Fables" 

 in 1820, and they were also employed in the interesting reprint of the whole 

 work which appeared in 1867.* 



Several minor publications were illustrated about this time for Saint and 

 others, but it would be as tedious as unnecessary to dwell upon them, as they 

 are given in the catalogue at the end of this book. There are a few publi- 



* Mr. Charles Welsh, of the firm of Messrs. Griffith and Farran, successors to Newbery, in reading this account 

 in manuscript, makes the following note :— " It would be only fair to say that this book was originally published by 

 John Newbery, comer of St. Paul's Churchyard. What must have been the condition of the laws of copyright to 

 have admitted of such proceedings as Saint was often guilty of in this way?" It appears that Saint, as well as other 

 provincial publishers, was in the habit of republishing entertaining volumes which appeared in the metropolis. 



